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I belong to some amazing groups on Facebook where I get to learn from experts and professionals different life changing skills. I am actually addicted to 5 of them and my day is not complete without visiting.

One evening, I visited one of the groups and someone asked a burning question. His question was: “What type of business will you advice me to start with N500K?”

This question attracted many suggestions and supposed way out. I enjoyed reading every comment on that thread. The dilemma of this young man resides in the heart of many of us. We seek answers from all around us. I have been there so I understand.

I have formulated a list of 15 questions you must ask yourself before you start any business especially if you have a full time job. I will however be sharing 5 of these questions with you today. I expect you to ask yourself these questions.

WHO AM I?

I cannot stop to emphasis on how important this simple step is. You need to know he true person called YOU so as to know what fits into your personality.

WHAT DO I DESIRE IN LIFE?

I am sure you may be wondering what desires have to do with business. If you don’t have a vision of what your life should look like, it will be close to impossible for you to have a goal.

WHAT DO I LOVE DOING?

Digging down into your sub consciousness will open up a lot to your consciousness. What do you love to do? Where does your passion lie? Business is hard enough, don’t add dislike to the list ooo.

[Tweet “Digging down into your sub consciousness will open up a lot to your consciousness”]

WHAT CAN I DO?

At this point, you need to analyze what you can do. This is the point when you bring out your skills to the forefront. The skills and knowledge you possess are now needed like never before.

WHAT DO I NEED TO LEARN

There is a popular saying that “No one is an island of knowledge”. This is the time for you to sharpen your skills and increase your knowledge base. No knowledge is lost.

We are stopping today for another day. There are still 10 more powerful questions waiting to be asked. Will you love to get them immediately, send me a mail on hello@franciscaogunlade.com and viola, it is yours.

Because you have my back always, I must announce to you that something special is coming.

I just wrote a business book from my experience just for you.

[Tweet “I just wrote a business book from my experience just for you.”]

I created a new handle on twitter on the last day of May ,2016. This was a decision I had to make so as to have a clear approach to reaching people. I decided that my excisting handle ,@eftinzz will be sorely for my events handle while my new handle @franciscalade will be my personal and outreach handle.

This seemed like a simple decision at the time. What I didn’t know was how that simple decision was going to propel me to a pedestal.

I got a direct message on twitter one evening in June from an international NGO named Phenomenal African Women Foundation, #PAW , requesting for an interview from me because I fit into their profile of impactful African women. Sincerely, I never heard about them before that moment. My joy knew no bounds. This picture is an except from the interview.

I have been thinking about this feature and how it came about since I was contacted and I came to some realizations. These realities are the lessons I learnt which are basic for every one starting or running a business.

Having a clear profile: Prior May 31st, I was using my twitter handle to reach people on starting a side business, creating their dream lives and also for my event plans. This was confusing for a reader as my reader cannot ascertain what I stand for at a glance. Creating a new twitter handle solved that confusion. In starting a side business, you also need to have a clear profile so people can easily identify what you are doing.

Having a focus : I decided to focus on helping people create a side business, make more money and live their dreams lives after years in paid employment. I could have chosen to be a general Business coach but I decided otherwise. On my new twitter handle, I made it clear on my profile, who I was helping. In starting a side business or Plan B as we call it, you need to be focused on the help you are rendering to people.

Having a consistent pattern : On my new handle, I tweet about a lot of strategy tips geared to help individuals have a clear path to creating a Plan B of their choice. To make it easier for follow, I created a hashtag, #PlanB , which I consistently add to my tweets. This simple addition has helped in creating a pattern for my reader. My new reader will easily use this hashtag to connect various tweets of mine for better understanding. If you are starting out or you have already started out, consistency is key.

In my interview, I stated I want to help a particular number of people in the next 5 years. I want to help them gain clarity and achieve their dreams in life.

I am inviting you to be a part of these people who are willing to face their dreams and excel . Within the next 5 days, I want to reach 20 people in a FREE 15 minutes chat.

[Tweet “I want to reach 20 people in a FREE 15 minutes chat in the next 5 days”]

Let us reason together and find a way to make that dream of yours a reality. If you have been waiting for that push which will make you take action, this is your opportunity.

I am so excited today. My excitement is not because of the extended holidays o, it goes beyond that.

I was on radio on Tuesday. I was featured on the Youth World hosted by Ekemini Joseph on Radio Nigeria, Atlantic 104.5 FM, Uyo. I spoke on time management on that episode. I have been so excited since then (e no easy na).

Have you realized that if you don’t imbibe some time management skills, you might find it difficult to start a profitable side business?

Going on today in our lessons, I want us to identify some things that could deter us from maximizing our time management skills. I call them TIME WASTERS.

[Tweet “I want us to identify some things that could deter us from maximizing our time”]

Let us look at the 5 top time wasters together.

Discussions with colleagues: Discussing with colleagues is not bad in the real sense of it as this is necessary to make the work go on. The type of discussion here are lengthy irrelevant discussions. The top topics that fall into this category are football and politics. Our men will understand better (lol).

Grapevine gist: “Have you heard what happened yesterday?” That is how the discussion starts. This type of office gossip has shifted focus as it is no longer limited to office affairs. Our various celebrity lifestyle and gossip blogs have not helped matters. Having such gist is a great time waster. My ladies will understand me better.

Internet games: In our growing up years, we only heard about drug addicts but now, we have different types of addiction. One of such is game addiction. Some internet games can be so addictive that you can even forget about eating when playing the game. Did I hear you mention candy crush? I now understand why my organization disabled games from our workstations.

Chat rooms: I remember when I was in the university, internet was not accessible as it is today. You only get to access the internet in a cyber café. Most times, people purchase internet time for project research only to spend half of the time chatting on yahoo messenger and forgetting the reason for the visit to the café. In this age and time, online chat rooms have taken over. We only need our phones. Spending time on BBM, Whatsapp and other chat groups and apps can be a great time waster if not controlled.

Television: I am personally guilty of this sometimes because I have some favorite channels I love watching. I relax by watching this stations but I sometimes extend my relaxation. In moments like that, it is actually me trying to indulge myself. Same goes for many of people. Some people tend to spend valuable time in front of a TV set forgetting that the time wasted cannot be regained easily.

After all our pleasantries and hugs and “you are looking good” have been done, she called me aside.

“Francisca, I have been following your works. You are really trying oo. How do you find time to do all this?”

I smiled and replied her “When there is a will, there is a way”.

I couldn’t go on to explain what I meant at the moment so I decided to explain that today because i know you might be planning to ask me the same question when you see me. Don’t worry, make I explain myself now.

The question my friend asked indirectly was “How do you manage your time”

The answer I gave indirectly was that I learnt time management.

I am going to show you 3 practical steps I took in managing my time.

Step 1

Self search: The phenomenal artist named Femi Kuti sang a song in the 90’s titled search your self. In my bid to snatch some extra time out of the 24 hours I have, I had to search myself. I discovered the time of the day when I was optimal and the time of the day when I was less active. I had to learn my body language in a different way, more of understanding my feelings. All this helped me in making decisions in and out of my workplace. [Tweet “. I discovered the time of the day when I was optimal and the time of the day when I was less active”]

Step 2

Time table: Do you remember what it was like in secondary school when we had a time table for our subjects? I remember vividly that we normally had mathematics on Thursday mornings and it was a double period and I didn’t like our physics class then which was the last period of the day. I tend not to assimilate well at that time. Thinking back, I know understand why my performance in physics was poor. Same thing you must do with your time when you are working on your plan B. you must have a time table. You must assign your daily duties to specific times when you will be optimal. Just like my physics class, don’t assign a tasking job function when you are less optimal.

[Tweet “You must assign your daily duties to specific times when you will be optimal”]

Step 3

Seek Help : There is a saying that “No one is an epitome of knowledge”. This saying speaks directly to you and me. You are not Wikipedia that is expected to know everything. There are some job functions you are not grounded in and you tend to spend more time on it that the others. Seek help in such functions. Look for somebody within your organization who is a guru in such and approach the person. Request from the person to put you through with the particular duty. Roll up your sleeves and learn. [Tweet “Roll up your sleeves and learn”]

I want to challenge you to take this practical steps and you will be grateful you did. It is a deliberate step we must take if we intend to be more productive in our day jobs and our additional responsibilities and side hustles.

I will be having a webinar in July. If you attended my previous webinar or have had a session with me, you know you are never going to be the same after the webinar. I will give you the details next week. Stay glued.

I need a favour from you now. Share this post on your social media handles and forward this mail to 2 friends. They will thank you for it, that I assure you.

Nikita in the series was a trained assassin that went rogue and tried to uncover a secret US organization that trained her named Division.

Actually, we are not really discussing Nikita today but we are borrowing some words from her.

These words were repeated more than once to Alex:

“It is a gift, you don’t reject a gift” (paraphrased).

Many times in the series, these gifts came with its own challenges and discomfort. It was not always a bed of rose for Alex but then, Alex has been told not to question a gift and not to reject a gift.

This morning, these words flashed through my mind as I was preparing some contents of mine.

How can one balance the thought of a gift that brings discomfort?

What if I told you your 9-5 job is a gift?

[Tweet “What if I told you your 9-5 job is a gift?”]

Yeah, it is a very beautiful gift.

How?

The years spent is paid employment is a fertile training ground for every employee to experiment, explore and empower.

[Tweet “. . . paid employment is a fertile training ground for every employee to experiment, explore and empower”]

It is an opportunity to discover your strength and weaknesses.

Imagine being given a gift and still being paid for the gift. This is exactly what you get in your 9-5 job.

You are enrolled in a school and still paid to learn. Chai.

[Tweet “You are enrolled in a school and still paid to learn. Chai.”]

In a way sef, you are cheating management, lol.

But seriously, you are trained to be your own boss for free.

How do you feel with this great discovery?

You need to embrace your job and the lessons you learn before you can effectively create a fulfilling Plan B.

[Tweet “You need to embrace your job and the lessons you learn before you can effectively create a fulfilling Plan B.”]

How has been your week? Mine has been a bit stressful though it has its good sides.
In the last two weeks, listening to the news have been me causing heartaches.
Let me start from the most recent happenings that touched me in no small ways.

The Nigerian Nation lost a Legend named Stephen Keshi. He is one of the two Africans who won the African Nations Cup as a player and a coach- Can you beat that? We must not forget that he was in the team that shook the world in USA ’94.

Three days earlier, the world lost a Legend name Muhammad Ali. He is the greatest boxer of all times. He stood for what he believed in even when it cost him his medals and awards. He was the greatest even before he became one.

Can you see a pattern playing out in the lives of these men?

You can say they are both sports men but ask yourself this question- are you not a sports man?
Life itself is a sport so you are born a sports man. It is left for you to be the Legend that you are meant to be.
The part I love most is that they knew what they wanted and where they were going. They both had clarity and direction when it mattered most.

We are yet to end our talk for today.

The previous week birthed news that affected not fewer than 1400 persons and their families. This is the news of some banks laying off staff members.

Such news gives heart ache instantly. You start remembering all the people you know that work in the establishment and stat making panic calls borne out of concern.

Concern as to know if they are affected, concerns as to what is next for them assuming they are affected, and concern as to what becomes of the relationship you share with them.

It gives me so much concern for these persons whose career is truncated along the line. Many 9-5 people are caught unawares when such happens.

You may ask “Are they not supposed to have a plan B?” Another will even go ahead to ask “What have you been looking at all these years?”
What many don’t understand is that individuals are willing to take steps to dream actualization if only they have direction. Direction kwa?

When I meet retirees not looking well, it pains me in no small way. I have discovered overtime that direction was lacking when they needed it most, when they were thinking of a Plan B.

Don’t forget you can only know your direction if you are clear about where you are going.

DIRECTION and CLARITY are twins, they work hand in hand. [Tweet “DIRECTION and CLARITY are twins, they work hand in hand.”]

I am having a free PLAN B AUDIT starting from today, June 9, 2016 for 5 days. It is all about the fastest fingers oo.

I hired a sound architect to draw my house plan. When he was done with the 3D, I was so impressed with his job.

From foundation stage onwards, I gave it my all. I made sure half of my monthly pay went into the construction.

Have I told you my roofing was custom made?

I am a huge fan of marble so I used it in the bar area.

I have issues with paints peeling on the fence so I opted for tiles. The fence are not painted but tiled- in and out.

How will people know I have arrived if I don’t use stone works on the frontal of my house?

Throughout my five years of building the house, I didn’t give room for any other expenses or investment. My whole savings went into it.

I have worked in Ekpoma for 15 years and this Is my gift to myself. Even if I am asked to leave my employment today, I already have an investment worth 25 million naira.

Above is the story of Anthony

Anthony has been in the service of an insurance company for 15 years and has risen to the post of a branch manager. He has put in his best into the company and has built a beautiful house in Ekpoma as a gift to self. This house is his investment and pride in paid employment.

For five years, Anthony had put in his wages and even his savings to see his dream house built. Truly speaking, the house is a masterpiece.

Many of us in paid employment are like Anthony and it is okay.

Infact, if you have worked in a well paying organization for 8 years and still living in a rented apartment, your family members will start looking at you with one kain eye, lol.[Tweet “Infact, if you have worked in a well paying organization for 8 years and still living in a rented apartment, your family members will start looking at you with one kain eye, lol.”]

KNOWN SAYING: A building with good title documents is acceptable as security in lending

TRUTH: The location of the property is the highest determinant for acceptability as a security

KNOWN SAYING: Financial institutions will avail a lending facility once you have a security with high valuation.

TRUTH: Financial institutions will avail you a lending facility based on your existing business transactions and ability to pay back.

Anthony has a high valued property situated in Ekpoma ( Location). He has invested his all in his organization and his building (no investment to self).

Let us assume per adventure Anthony’s company decides to downsize and he is affected. Do you think he can translate his investment to cash?

I will love to hear your thoughts and views in the comments, it is very important.

June 5th,2016, VALID DREAMS with Francisca will be holding. This is my passion project where I rub minds with ladies with vision and dreams and men that have guts. We learn, challenge and push ourselves to action. It is holding in Akure on Sunday by 3pm to 5pm. We only pay for our snacks which is one thousand naira only (This is the last time it will be that price because petrol is now N145).

Are you in Akure ,its environ or you know someone there? It is a program not to miss.

This edition is tagged: GIRLS WANNA MAKE MONEY

Who doesn’t need money in this time of inflation and high cost of living?

I always love it when I travel to the eastern part of the country. This does not happen frequently so the trip is always one to look forward to.
The level of excitement however is dependent on the route taken.

Let me explain.

My local government is the last in Enugu State. We share boundaries with Benue and Kogi states. We are actually closer to the North than all states in the Southern Nigeria. The route via Kogi state is a long stretch of road with few major cities and towns in between. We get to pass over the river Benue. When my daughter saw this, she said “Mummy, see big water”.

The second route is via Onitsha. This route is lined with major cities and towns. We get to see the beauty of the Niger Bridge, the hustling and bustling of the traders and the advertising prowess of the bus conductors wanting passengers for their array of buses. Moreover, you cannot miss the sights of the tall blocks of flats lined up in pride as if in a beauty pageant adorning the streets of Onitsha .
I am certain you already know my preferred route, lol.

Why am I telling you this story?

Either we take the first or second route, we still get to my village early enough to take a late lunch before preparing for dinner. But from my story, the level excitement of my trip is more if a particular route is taken.

Why is it so?

There is an experience I get from traveling via Onitsha that I don’t get via Kogi. This experience is peculiar to that route and only that route.
The experience is in the cities I pass through, the beauty of the scenery, the liveliness of the people I get to meet.
The merging of the individual items make up a unique experience for me.
This Is the same with life.
When we set a vision for our selves, the different happenings, encounters and learning create a unique experience that is only ours.[Tweet “When we set a vision for our selves, the different happenings, encounters and learning create a unique experience that is only ours.”]

As an employee or a business person, we set goals for the year ,for the month or the week. If the goals are just set with you doing nothing about it, you will wake up one morning and discover that the time frame for your set goals have elapsed.For you to make your goals and vision see the light of day, you must take decisive steps. You must be deliberate in the information you harness and use. You must seek knowledge that expands your thinking. You must take a route with the most exciting experience.

This is the question for the day –

ARE YOU CREATING AN EXPERIENCE?[Tweet “This is the question for today. ARE YOU CREATING AN EXPERIENCE?”]

Before I drop my beautiful pen into the basket of love( na so dem dey write am that time), I will be creating experience with a group of beautiful ladies who have dreams and are resilient and handsome men who have guts at the VALID DREAMS with Francisca event in Akure on the 5th of June.
Be sure to be the first to get the details in full.

Share this post with friends, family and on all your social media handles, someone in your cicle just needs to read this.

We ended last weeks post asking and thinking of where Mr Balogun has gone wrong in his food stuff business.

He does not have any reason to fail in the business because of the following known facts:

Food is a going concern

Food stuff is in continuous demand

Food stuff is a daily need

So what is responsible for the tale of woes?

We will be analyzing some of the circumstances surrounding Mr Balogun during the period under review from some scripts in the previous story.

Mr Balogun was disappointed in Steve, he was disappointed in the system because he had to face the disciplinary committee, he was angry with everything

In our daily functions in paid employment, we are faced with occasional disappointments and sometime, it if from the organization or our colleagues. We handle such situations differently. This could lead to frustrations as it was in the case of Mr Balogun. Let me tell you a little secret – such disappointments will come in your personal business.

Mr Balogun could not handle disappointments well as a paid employee so he could not handle it well as a business owner.[Tweet “Mr Balogun could not handle disappointments well as a paid employee so he could not handle it well as a business owner.”]

Three days later, Mr Balogun tendered his resignation.

While in paid employment, the odd are always great ooo abi no be so?

Many times, we face some serious challenges at work and we feel like giving up. If you are a customer facing person, you will sometimes meet some really annoying and frustrating ones. If you are fortunate to be a marketer, you dread MPR a week before the time. Many times, you get back filled with anger and frustration except you have met your target in all indices. But after all said and done, you still get back to work the next day and put in all your energy into it.

That is the same thing that happens in business. You get hit by bills to pay(your new targets) and angered by customers but you just have to wake up next day and put your energy into it.

Mr Balogun gave up in the face of challenges. He was not tenacious[Tweet “Mr Balogun gave up in the face of challenges. He was not tenacious”]

He picked up his severance package a few weeks later and started foodstuff business

When we get employed as a fresh graduate on our first job, the excitement we have knows no bounds. We will be passionate to the extent that we will wish to take over our department and unit with our zeal- lol. Unfortunately, our organizations decide to make us Executive trainees. We are sent to training schools, enrolled in courses and put under the supervision of a senior colleague to learn on the job.

Have you ever wondered why you need to go through all these trainings before we are confirmed as staff? We get all the trainings so that we can be fully prepared to face the job and get it done well. Same goes for Business.

[Tweet “Mr Balogun did not get prepared before starting out as a business man. “]

We have successfully figured out 3 WHY’S responsible for the woes of Mr Balogun and our lessons from them. They are:

HANDLE YOUR DISAPPOINTMENTS

BE TENACIOUS

BE PREPARED

Sieving through the story above must have opened our eyes to one or two things. How about sharing it with us in the comments? I will love to learn from you.

If you have a question, please ask in the comment, it might just earn you a 15 minutes TAKE ACTION chat with me.

Mr Balogun was my head of department at a time. A very easy going and friendly man who was dedicated to his job. What endered him to me particularly was his beautiful handwriting. His handwriting will make an artist green with envy.

Mr Balogun will never seize to tell of his amazing wife and intelligent children. As at that time, Mr balogun was already looking forward to the 10 years long service award gift from my organization.

I walked into the office one beautiful afternoon wearing my jean trousers and a loose blouse with my hair adorned with brown beads ( that is my logo when on vacation. I wear core African braids). I sighted Mr Balogun with the head of operations and he was fuming with anger- very unusual.

I asked Chinwe my colleague what the anger was all about and she informed me that a Cheque of N500,000.00 was missing from Mr Balogun’s file.

After weeks of investigation, the cheque was found in the possession of an industrial attachee name Steve.

Mr Balogun was disappointed in Steve, he was disappointed in the system because he had to face the disciplinary committee, he was angry with everything.

Three days later, Mr Balogun tendered his resignation.

He picked up his severance package a few weeks later and started foodstuff business.

He did well in the first 3 months. By the 9th month, he already lost 2.9M Naira.

What could have happened? Was he duped? Did he mismanage his funds? Questions, questions and more questions.

What do you think happened to Mr Balogun? I will want to hear your views in the comment.

Main while, Don’t stop your 8-5 job until you have listened to the recording of this webinar.